White Oak basketball coach Chris Grimes said Kendall White had to be a man among boys if the Vikings were to snap a 19-game losing streak to rival Jacksonville.

White certainly was that Thursday night as he scored 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead White Oak to a 76-54 victory over the Cardinals to give the Vikings their first win against Jacksonville since 2006.

Earlier, the White Oak girls’ defeated Jacksonville 53-25 to complete the season sweep of the Cardinals in the teams’ regular-season finale.

The White Oak boys’ team (6-18, 3-11 Coastal 3-A Conference) entered having already lost twice this season to Jacksonville (10-14, 5-9) to continue a long stretch of losses to the Cardinals, most of them not close.

The Vikings hadn’t earned a victory over the Cardinals since a 64-54 win at White Oak High on Jan. 13, 2006.

“The seniors go out with a win. It’s a win against our rivals and it’s everything,” said White, a junior. “We just wanted to go in with a lot of intensity, but at the same time keep ourselves under control and not make stupid turnovers.”

The Vikings held their own in both losses to the Cardinals this season, only to stumble late and allow Jacksonville to pull away. This time, however, White Oak managed to extend a 32-26 halftime lead into a 22-point win over the Cardinals, who will still be the conference’s fifth and final seed for the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs.

“It’s a rivalry renewed, a rivalry renewed,” Grimes said. “It’s not a rivalry when one team wins consistently. What a way to send off our four seniors, Quinirius White, Mike Barton, Elu Riley and Anthony Sloane.

“Those guys have paid their dues for four years to Oak Town and for them to get a victory in their last time in this gymnasium, it’s really special.”

But the night belonged to Kendall White, a 5-foot-11 guard who came in averaging 15 points per game. He finished 13 of 23 from the floor and 7 of 11 from the free throw line.

White did most of his damage on dribble penetration.

“I thought Kendall did a really good job of, when he got to the rim but there was traffic, he jumped stopped and went up with two feet and used that body with his huge shoulders to finish,” Grimes said. “He has such a calming demeanor. He’s going to let the game come to him regardless of the hype of the game.”

Although the Vikings had an 18-12 lead, White only had four first-quarter points. He didn’t get his first field goal of the second quarter until he scored on a layup with 5:50 left in the period to give White Oak a 20-17 lead.

Page 2 of 3 - Late in the second quarter, he scored all 10 points in a 10-4 Vikings’ run that have WOHS a 32-23 lead.

“I was attacking like I wanted,” White said. “I wanted to take it to the hoop and see if I could make something happen.”

White then scored 17 points in the second half to help the Vikings pull away.

“He penetrated, drove and crashed,” Jacksonville coach James Jordan said of White.

Still, White was helped by his teammates.

Antione Robinson added 14 points, and Malik Jones had 8 points and 10 rebounds for the Vikings. Jones had 7 points in a third quarter that saw White Oak have spurts of 5-0 and 9-0 to extend its lead.

“We just wanted to stay composed and not let down,” White said. “We have been in this position before and so we didn’t want to let it slip.”

The Vikings didn’t, thanks to a 45-31 advantage on the boards and 31 percent shooting from the floor by Jacksonville. Tyler Perry scored 15 points, Nigel Vialva had 13 and Chris Smith added 10 for the Cardinals.

“This game we had an extra post with Malik, who didn’t play in the previous two games,” Grimes said. “Our two senior post players, Elu and Quinirius, did a really good job of denying the post and helping out when Nigel, (Perry) or Chris drove. All our guards did a great job of contesting threes without fouling.”

Jordan agreed the difference other than White was rebounding and the Vikings’ defense.

“We were not able to penetrate,” Jordan said. “We got to move the basketball faster and make the defense move.”

Girls

White Oak 53, Jacksonville 25: Tineisha Smith made her first shot 90 seconds in to give White Oak the lead for good at 4-2. Her solid shooting then allowed the Vikings to forge a double-digit lead they would never lose as White Oak defeated Jacksonville.

Smith finished with 17 points on 8 of 12 shooting.

“Tineisha has actually stayed after practice the past two practices just to work on shots on her own,” WOHS coach Carolyn Ashdown said. “I didn’t tell her to stay. She’s been doing it on her own.”

Lyric Levester added 15 points and Emily McLain had 10 for the Vikings (15-9, 7-7), who pulled away with a 7-0 run to end the first quarter and a 6-0 spurt in the second quarter.

“We have been doing a good job of staying active on defense,” Ashdown said. “We were able to switch up. We pressed a little bit, played man-to-man and zone. I think we had a quite of a few more steals than we normally do because we anticipated.”

The Vikings will be the Coastal Conference’s fifth and final seed for the state playoffs.